Therapeutic outcome of hemodialysis treatment may be affected by many factors, such as conditions of an individual patient, treatment options, proper settings of the dialysis system, usage of consumables for the dialysis, events occurred during the therapy, and relevant environmental factors. Individual components of a dialysis system including the sorbent cartridge must work together properly to provide sufficient structural and functional basis for the optimized therapy.
In a sorbent dialysis system, the spent dialysate is re-circulated through a sorbent cartridge rather than being discarded. The sorbent cartridge contains layers of sorbent materials, which selectively remove specific toxins, or break down toxins, in the dialysate. One of the drawbacks of sorbent dialysis systems is the high cost due to expensive materials used in the sorbent cartridges. Disposing of the cartridges after each use generates waste and also drives up the costs. Regeneration of some or all of the components of a sorbent cartridge for reuse of will lower long-term costs.
In general, only manufacture-designed or certified products are to be used in the dialysis system. Improper usage of dialysis components may cause decreased performance of the system, which endangers patient's safety. Improper usage may include using non-certified products, using rechargeable components that are not fully recharged or beyond their useful life, using dialysis components that do not match the need of particular patients. Additionally, since many dialysis components are in contact with the patient through blood or other fluid communications, cross-usage of dialysis components between patients are strictly prohibited in order to avoid contamination.
Hence, there is a need for methods and systems identifying the specific components of a dialysis system, such as a modular sorbent cartridge with detachable components or parts. There is a need for tracking dialysis components to ensure that certified components are used within their useful lives by the correct patients. There is a need for a system by which individual reusable modules of a modular sorbent cartridge can be tracked to ensure correct sorbent materials are used within their useful lives by the correct patients. There is a further need for methods and systems by which patient information can be identified, updated, easily accessed. The patient information such as prior session data can be used to set up the dialysis system for therapy optimization directed to the particular patient.